The seven signatories of the
Irish Proclamation (from the left): Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas
Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean MacDermott, Joseph Plunkett & Eamonn Ceannt
All of the above men were executed by the British Government for their efforts
in trying to secure a free Ireland!

At four minutes past noon on
Easter Monday, April 24th, 1916, from the steps of the General Post
Office Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic:

POBLACHT NA h-EIREANN
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE
IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

IRISHMAN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the
name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old
tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag
and strikes for her freedom.

Having organized and trained her
manhood through her secret revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican
Brotherhood, and through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers
and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having
resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that
moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies
in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full
confidence of victory.

We declare the right of the people
of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish
destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right
by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it
ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every
generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and
sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it
in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in
the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign
Independent State. And we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms
to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the
nations.

The Irish Republic is entitled to,
and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irish woman. The
Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal
opportunities of all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the
happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing
all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences
carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority in the
past.

Until our arms have brought the
opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government,
representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of
all her men and women, the Provision Government, hereby constituted, will
administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the
people.

We place the cause of the Irish
Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke
upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it
by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must,
by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice
themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to
which it is called.
Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government,